nuggethunting

Hello All, Just wanted to let you all know Dr. Erik Melchiorre wrote another great book on the Rich Hill area. This book is about the Octave Gold Mine and History. The book is titled "Octave Gold Mine, The Gold Queen of Rich Hill, Arizona." This book covers the entire history of the mine, 140 pages of great information. It also contains fold out maps, dozens of historical photos, maps of the original townsite, names of residents, interviews, historical documents and more. This book is $20 + Shipping. You can contact Dr. Erik Melchiorre and order the book directly by phone at (802) 426-2017. If you would like to visit the website and read more about the contents or use the Paypal shipping method, click here - Octave Gold Mine Book, Official Website I will also have copies for sale if anyone wants to order them directly from me. I just breezed through the pages and I'm excited to start reading about the history and production of the Octave Gold Mine. For everone that might not know, the Octave was one, if not the most productive gold mine around Rich Hill, Arizona. I've personally found some beautiful gold nuggets and specimens from the area. Thanks Dr. Erik for the note written in my book! Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Jim, Uncle Ron pretty much said it. The Coiltek Pocket Rocket with an external signal enhancer like the Detacc or the new Goldscreamer will work well. The Black Widow's are also the best headphones in my opinion for the SD/GP/GPX series. There are so many coils available, that is just a matter of personal choice. If you decide on any of these accessories, I always have them in stock. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Mono Man, You really can't go wrong with either. I've found many ... many pounds of gold with the Coiltek 14-inch Mono Round on all the Minelab PI's. However, it's a solid design so it will be a bit heavier than the new Coiltek 14-inch Elliptical Mono Lightweight Searchcoil. The round 14-inch will get a bit more depth if you're paying close attention. The 14-inch elliptical will be a bit more sensitive and can get into tighter spots easier due to the elliptical design. It's really a matter of preference. My coil arsenal selection for my GPX-4500 are: (1) Coiltek 10x5 Joey Mono (for small gold nuggets near surface) (2) Coiltek 14-inch Mono Round (for prospecting patches) (3) Coiltek 14-inch Elliptical Mono Goldstalker (for small to mid-sized wash hunting) (4) Coiltek 18.5-inch Elliptical Mono Goldstalker (for covering a lot of ground, more depth, coil is super lightweight!) (5) Nuggetfinder 20-inch Round Mono (speciality coil for only certain areas that might have large nuggets at depth) (6) Coiltek Wallaby DD Pro 17-inch Elliptical (just in case I need a DD, hope I never do!) Take care, Rob Allison

Hey All, Just got off the phone with Dick Shultz at Minelab USA, Inc. Dick is head of the Repair Dept. along with other stuff. He stated if you have serial number 0001 - 1200 you will need to send in your GPX-4500 sometime in the future. This don't mean right now if you're not having trouble with it. He actually asked if you're not having trouble, to hold off as they are getting swamped with detectors right now. He said if you send it now, the minimum amount of repair turn-around time is 2-3 weeks. He said this could move up to a month if everyone sends them now. They do have the parts now, so if your unit is there they can start working on them and get them back to you. I think I'm going to wait about a month before I send mine in. Just wanted to give you an up to date report. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Don and All, Many use the hunting mounts for rifles also, but I don't like having the detector exposed. If it starts raining, which it has, I have all my gear completely covered. If you notice in my second picture, I have a small blanket and underneath I have a 2-inch thick foam mat. This really keeps the metal detector and accessories padded. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hey Todd, Thanks! As for cases, I do have the Minelab hard cases, but I think you might have better luck with a Quad Box like I have below. I purchased this one at Sportsman's Warehouse in Phoenix and it can carry everything I need and more. I can break down two complete Minelab PI's, all the coils, batteries and gear and get them in this case. The hard Minelab box is nice, but you must have a upper two piece shaft for it to work. This case came stock with the GP Extreme, which had a upper two piece metal shaft. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello BF750, What mods did you have done to the SD2000? Yes, I think the new Coiltek Lightweight Goldstalkers would be a good choice if you're looking for mono coils right now. Coiltek is also in the process of making these lightweight Goldstalkers in bigger ellipticals and rounds in the near future. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello Tuff, Platinium is a metal that is non-ferrous, such as copper, silver, lead, tin, gold, and their alloys. Like Chris R. mentioned, if iron is present with the Platinium then it could be magnetic or picked up with a strong magnet. Hope this helps, Rob Allison

Hello Tuffdetector, I would recommend a Minelab PI if you can budget it. The Minelab PI's are much more immune to mineralization (mineralized soil, hot rocks & volcanics) than VLF gold nugget hunting metal detectors. The White's GMT is using the VLF technology, so it will find a lot of hot rocks and false signals if you get into pretty mineralized soil conditions. In mild to somewhat moderate mineralization the White's might work well. Also, the Minelab PI's get 2-3 times the depth over the conventional VLF metal detectors. This is another plus for the Minelab PI's. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello DigDeep, From my findings the "Normal" timing is best for deeper nuggets if you can keep the unit running stable and balanced. If not, the new "Enhance" timing is the new ticket. Enhance is a newer, revised timing somewhat like Sensitive/Smooth, but you don't loose all the depth. I will post more, have to run .... Rob Allison

Hello BF750, I ran the Minelab SD2000 for several years back in the early to mid 90's here in Arizona. One great thing about the SD2000 is it's "mineral immunity." I believe this has to do with two things, (1) Pulse Induction Technology & (2) A Lesser Sensitivity vs. other SD/GP series. I ran a Mono everywhere in Arizona, even over ironstone patches. Using a DD on a SD2000 in my opinion would be a be sacrafice to sensitivity and depth. With the SD2000 you want to gain everything you can, so a Monoloop searchcoil gives you a bit more depth and sensitivity. With a small Monoloop Searchcoil and having no mods on the SD2000, the smallest gold nugget I could find near or at the surface was around 4-5 grains. I used the Minelab 8-inch Round Mono mostly, as at that time the Coiltek Joey Mono wasn't available. Looking forward to hearing more of your questions. Hope we were able to answer some of them so far. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hey Guys, Thanks for all the comments and suggestions. Dawn and I will take note of all of them and make some changes in the near future. The process will be slow, so I might start by cleaning up a few pages and fixing some of the dead links. Things I will do for sure - Add new stories Add new recent nugget/specimen finds Update the Customer comment page Update Customer finds Update and Fix the "Rob's Detector Sales" page and online ordering (Priority!) Add a "About me" page And more .... Thanks once again, Rob Allison

Hello All, I've just noticed a recent spike in new registered members that are posting. For some time it seemed as if the normal posters were here and then the normal lurkers that just read. However, recently there has been a bunch of new contributors (new and old members). I just wanted to welcome you all to my forums and hope to see you all posting in the near future. This forum has over 3,000 registered members, most of them very knowledgeable and helpful. Talk with you all soon, Rob Allison

Hello Guys, Like Grubstake and Todd suggested, with the SD's if you experience very nasty ground you do have the ability to seperate out the channels. I really liked this feature on the SD2100 and the manual ground balance. You could use just one channel and hunt for deeper, bigger gold in very mineralized areas, or use the other channel for smaller gold somewhat near the surface. There are no many types of mineralization out there, it all comes down to experimenting with Mono's/DD's and some of the settings to see what works best. The most important thing (in my opinion) is to have a Minelab run very stable and quiet. The more background, EMI or other noises you hear will effect your ability to hear those very faint targets that could be small nuggets at depth, or very large nuggets at depth. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello Uncle Ron, Congrats once again on another nice nugget! On another note, the whole damn ground is questionable. I would think the ground would be more conductive when it's wet or damp. I know normally when the ground is wet, the Minelab PI's seem to be very quiet and stable. Just my thoughts, Rob Allison

Hello Gary, Was hoping you would comment since you're back using the SD2200 with the Coiltek Li-Ion System. It's been such a long time since I've personally used the SD's. However, here in Arizona I never used a DD, always a Mono. I never had a problem here in Arizona with a Mono on the SD's. I believe the smallest nugget I ever found with the SD's was a 0.8 grain nugget right on bedrock with the Coiltek Joey Mono Searchcoil. I know I found plenty of 2-5 grainers on the surface, or very close to the surface with ease. When Bob called a few nights ago he wanted a coil that would give him better sensitivity to smaller gold. I figured a Mono would be the best choice since it would give him better sensitivity, better pinpointing and a bit more depth. Gary, I'm sure Bob is going to love the new 14-inch Goldstalker Mono, but if the mineralization is really that bad where he is hunting, he might have to go to a smaller DD, or DD Pro searchcoil. I'm hoping the Mono will work well for him. Talk with you later, Rob Allison

Hello All, Below is a customer testimony all the way from Australia on the Black Widow Headphones. In my opinion they are the best for the Minelab metal detectors. Gerry and his wife seem to agree all the way across the globe. Thanks Gerry for the testimony and your business. Wishing you the best in OZ. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Mono Man, Minelab wanted me to clarify it's not a "recall." A recall is when all units must be recalled in for some reason or another. The serial number range is from 00000 - 01200. If you're GPX-4500 is within this range, you will probably receive a letter from Minelab in the near future. I have yet to receive a letter and my serial number is under 100 (00100). Maybe dealers are the last ones to be taken care of. Welcome to the forums once again. Hope to see you contributing more in the near future. Rob Allison

Hey Bob, Welcome to the forums and Thanks for the business! The new Coiltek Goldstalker Mono that you just purchased will help find smaller gold and get you a bit more depth over the coil you have been using. I believe you might have purchased the Coiltek Li-Ion System also. This will help stablize your SD throughout the day using a higher voltage. This also helps increase depth/sensitivity a bit when you're running the 7.3 volt mode. If you want to take it back to 6 volts, just flip the switch back to 6 volts. You can toggle the switch back in forth if you desire. However, I recommend running the 7.3 volt mode all the time. You mentioned finding nuggets under a grain in size. This might be tough with an SD model. They are not as sensitive as the GP or GPX series, which can pick up nuggets down to a grain or smaller. I know I found nuggets around 2-3 grains at the surface with the SD's, so this shouldn't be a problem if you're paying close attention. If you're looking to find very small gold, you might consider the Coiltek Joey Mono 10x5 elliptical or Minelab 8-inch Round Mono like I stated in the email. I would also recommend running in the Fixed Ground Balance mode if you can. If the mineralization is too tough, you might have to resort back to the Tracking mode. I'm sure JP will give you some great tips also on the SD2200. Talk with you soon, Rob Allison

Hello Mono Man, Well I'm not sure how those settings worked for you in OZ. I know the settings you have above would be really unstable in mineralized ground conditions from my experiences. I will explain what I know about your settings - You were using Sensitive/Smooth, which is probably the best for mineralized areas. I agree on this! I see you were using Tracking (Medium), so my best guess is the ground was mineralized. I agree on this! You're using Deep, probably deeper ground conditions. I agree on this! However, this is where I see you might of had some serious ground noise issues. You are running your signal at 20. I know when you increase this to a much higher setting past about 15, the GPX-4000 will become a bit more unstable. This could have contributed to more background noise. With a Audio of Deep, you will also get more background noise. Did you try Normal or Quiet Audio's first? I have noticed Deep makes a difference on deep targets, but really makes the GPX-4000 more unstable, especially the more mineralized the ground conditions are. I would really question a Gain of 15 on highly mineralized ground conditions. Yes, you get more performance overall with a higher gain, but then again you might loose your very faint targets if the unit is very unstable. I questions some of the above settings and if you're running your threshold quiet and trying to make up audio with the Signal Enhancer. From what I know, I would have lowered the signal down to around 15 for starters. I would have dropped my audio back to Normal or Quiet. I would have started my Gain around 10. From these settings along with a very smooth threshold setting (not too high or low) I would have seen how the detector is reacting to the ground conditions. If the unit was very stable I would slowly raise some of my settings to a point where the detector is getting unstable and maybe back down one setting. The most important thing is too have a very smooth and stable unit, not to have everything maxed out. Just some of my thoughts, Rob Allison

Hello Mono Man, Wow .... Welcome to the forums for starters. You have a lot of questions, so I will try to tackle some of them from what I know. First, I had great luck hunting with all the Mienlab's, going back to the SD2000. The GPX-4000 is an amazing detector. I really loved the Sensitive/Smooth feature since many of the areas here in Arizona were covered with ironstones/volcanics or even just concentrations of black sands in the washes. As far as the Gain goes, I try to run that as high as possible, but making sure the detector is smooth and stable. Some places this might be 9-10, but other places maybe as high as 14. I never ran 15 on the Gain here in Arizona. That high of a gain on the GPX-4000 would be really unstable and much tougher to hear the faint whisper type targets. I noticed in Sensitive/Smooth I could run a higher gain than in Normal timing or Sensitive/Extra. I recommend always using a Threshold. A low or high threshold can cause you to miss targets. I never used a signal enhancer on the GPX-4000, but know they will increase all background and detector noises. If you're using them, more than likely you will have a noisier sounding unit, but the small targets will stand out a bit clearer. You mentioned the GP Extreme and what Minelab stated (you cant find deep gold with it in Senstive/Deep). Well that is one of the only settings I used over here in the US and I found a lot of deep gold. A matter of fact, several of them over 3/4th of a pound at depth. For the most part, the GPX-4000 was really reliable. I had a problem after several years of use. The push button ON/OFF failed and I sent it back in for repair. I guess it was some type of ribbon cable that burned apart and wouldn't allow the detector to turn on. Hope this helps a bit, Rob Allison

Hello Steve, You're probably right, but my entire life I always wanted to take care of others. I guess I would rather work hard, but have my website easy to navigate and use! Just asking for suggestions or comments about the site. At one time I had a website that had over 400 pages of great nugget hunting information, but lost a darn hard drive and lost most of it. Just looking to restart the building process slow. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Grubstake, Actually this couple came down from back East and they were interested in purchasing a Tesoro at first. I first asked them what their plans were and they stated there were going to join the 24K Gold Hunters Club and do some prospecting in Arizona. I told them it would be best for them to come down to see me and they we could talk about their options and what might be better than the Tesoro at Rich Hill. Low and behold, it didn't take them long to realize a Minelab PI was the ticket at Rich Hill, so they ended up purchasing a Minelab GPX. They were very impressed with the depth/sensitivity of this new unit compared to their White's gold detector. They also talked with Elly, owner of the 24K claims and she told them to consult with me about a metal detector purchase. Take care, Rob Allison

Hey Don, You're very welcome. Did you get the other stuff yet? Now get your butt out into the goldfields and find some gold nuggets! Take care, Rob Allison

Hello Everyone, I know for some time now my website had been really outdated. I'm to the point now where I'm getting tons of customers asking me to update the site and get the online ordering back up. Dawn and I have plans here in the near future to start working on the website, but we know it will take some time to get all the products listed and have it available for online ordering. I'm sure there are tons of grammer errors and pages that aren't working, so if anyone has time I would ask them to visit my website at - www.nuggethunting.com and give me your advice on what don't work, what you would like to see done to the site. Like I stated, it's a long process when you're doing it all yourself, work a day job and run the business to boot. However, we both have plans to tackle the site and get it back updated with new gold pictures, customer finds, updated products/prices and even some new gold stories. Thanks for your time and advice in advance. Rob Allison